427c Christmas in London, Umbria, France, Norway, Greece, Basque Country

What makes Christmas time special where you live? Everybody feels good and nice at Christmas time. Maybe the next day it's hell again, but Christmas it's Christmas, it's something else. Hi, I'm Rick Steves. We'll get you in the spirit of the season in the hour ahead as we check in with friends in Europe about the special ways they celebrate the holidays. We'll contrast the big city excitement of pre-Christmas London with the traditions you'll find in small town in Italy. In France, holiday treats include a decadent eulog cake this time of year. It's a rolled cake with chocolate and the cream and trust me at the end of dinner, you don't have room for this but you do have to go through it. Well in Norway, it's not Christmas unless I eat the fermenter trough. And we'll learn about the woodsy version of Santa in Spanish Basque Country, but be careful to avoid those elves in Greece. They're not dangerous, they will not wound you or kill you, but if they come into your house it'll be a mess. Celebrate everything, it's travel with Rick Steves. When you mention the 12 days of Christmas in Europe, you start counting on the 25th and keep the celebrations going right up until epiphany in January. Today on Travel with Rick Steves, we're exploring some of the interesting ways that people in different European countries observe the holiday season. There are lots of special foods you get this time of year and how you feel about them might be different if you're spending your Christmas in France, in Italy, or in Norway. Hi, I'm Rick Steves. In just a bit, we'll hear about some really distinctive holiday traditions that come with the season in Greece. We'll also hear how a backwoods version of Santa got drafted a few years ago, to bring gifts to the good children in Spain's Basque Country on Christmas Eve. Let's start with a quick check in on how the season's shaping up in London. It's Christmas time. Jolly old England. Big city, London. What's it like? I'm with Tom, Hooper and Gillian Chadwick, two blue badge guides from London. Tom and Gillian, thanks for joining us this Christmas. How do you celebrate Christmas in London? What tips do you have for travellers that might be visiting London during Christmas? Definitely go and see all the lights. Harrods and Fortnum and Mason, all the shops. And Hamleys, the toy store. Oxford Circus, that area. And Regent Street. Regent Street is the big thing for lights. Regent Street. And then the great stores. What stores are most famous for their window displays? Harrods, Fortnum and Mason. Selfridges. And kids, what's the kids wonderland? Kids is Hamleys. Yeah. Yeah, kids is Hamleys. And how about classical music and Christmas sort of culture? There'll be carol concerts all over the place. Oh yes, we'll have the Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square from Norway. Norway gives, what's the story of Oslo gives? Because the Norwegian Royal Family lived in exile in London during the Second World War. And so as a sign of their gratitude, they send us a giant Christmas tree every year. Every Christmas you get a tree from Norway. Yes. Specifically Oslo. The people of Oslo. Yes. Well that's interesting. They have a sort of lighting thing like you do Christmas trees here. And then they have carols almost every single evening around the Christmas tree. And all the proceeds go to charities. Trafalgar Square. Yeah. In front of the National Gallery. Right in front of the National Gallery with the view of Big Bend. Glorious. Glorious. And I've noticed it doesn't snow a lot in London but there's always snow on Trafalgar Square. Of course. What do they do? They make some snow there for the party? I saw the kids there. And the snow is wonderful. It's targeted snow. We have this special weather which we can target. Right there. A little micro climate on Trafalgar Square. Shoot the clouds. Shoot the clouds, Mac. And one thing. Ice rinks as well. Ice rinks. I was going to say down at Somerset Towers. Somerset Towers. The Natural History Museum. Tower of London's got one now in the moat as well. They have one there. In the moat. Ice rink crazy. Around the tower? A bit of it. It would be really good to shoot. Oh, around the tower of London. So there's a lot of fun in London during Christmas time. Another really good place to go is Hampton Court Palace which is about 30 minutes train ride and they have loads of Christmas events and they have their own ice rink as well. And what are the traditional things to eat and drink at Christmas time for you? Turkey. Turkey. Stuffing and bread sauce, cranberry sauce. And this thing called Christmas pudding. What is Christmas pudding? It is this unbelievably rich fruit and suet mix it should be. Which is boiled really, isn't it? It's sort of you put it in a pan with boiling in its own container in boiling water and slowly over 16 years now about whatever time it heats up. It's been simmering for a long time. It's pretty heavy. It's very heavy. Is a figgy pudding? Is that something at Christmas? Yeah, nearly the same. And minced pies but they're illegal aren't they? Yes. Why are they illegal? They're illegal and banned them in the 17th century. Well he banned Christmas. Yeah. Oliver Quammer what an evil man. You're free to celebrate Christmas now. Yes. We can. Well Merry Christmas to you in London. Thank you. Thank you. Let's leave behind the big city holiday bustle in London and forget about how many shopping days are left till Christmas and head to a small town in the Italian countryside. Cecilia Botta lives on her family's winemaking estate just a little outside of Orvieto in central Italy. She joins us now for a look at what the Christmas season is like this time of year where she lives. So Cecilia when we're thinking about Christmas in small town Italy how would it differ in Umbria in a small town from say Rome or Milano? Well you know everything is still very local. There is much more the sense of the family and you start preparing food and events to meet your cousins to meet their grandparents the illos. So everybody is preparing something or invites people. They play cards a lot. Playing cards in the home or in the home. What kind of cards? Well they we pay Scala 40 it's called Scale 40 or Buraco it's another game we do. Are these the old men that get together or the whole family? No no no the whole family children adults everybody. All right and bingo. And bingo? And bingo yes. What's the Italian word for bingo? Tombola. Tombola. Tombola. What would the prize be for the winner? Little things like candy like a torrone or a panettone or these little things nothing special. Now you live in a beautiful farm across the canyon from Orvieto. Tell me just very briefly the schedule for the Christmas festivities that's coming up for your household. Normally we in my family and most of the families in Italy we celebrate the 24th of December with a family. We have dinner with no meat. We have fish recipes. We have a lot of soups which are lentil soups or recipes from the from the past. Okay big family dinner no meat. What happens towards midnight on Christmas? We go to mass and then some families do open the gifts before mass some family do open the gifts after mass. After mass meaning late at night or the next morning? Late at night means mass is around 10 30 11 o'clock you come midnight and you open the gifts that are located under the tree or under the nativity. And normally they have the tree and the nativity in the houses. Now the nativity is a big deal all over it. Yeah you have beautiful ones. And you really almost every house even people if people are not very religious they do have the nativity in the house. I do have a nativity a whole nativity. It's not just the Mary Jesus the donkey. I do have a whole landscape. I mean it's the shepherd's it's a big big big. So what's the funniest little figure in your nativity scene? Oh I have butchers carpenters I have the waterfalls and you know that in my farm we also have a chapel so we have one also in the chapel. So we have two nativities one and my mother's home and the other one is in the chapel. And you're quite close to Assisi where I believe the first nativity scene ever was put together because St. Francis was a great teacher and he found it was easy to teach the story of Christmas with the visual aid of a nativity scene. Yeah it's in great show it's very close to Assisi and they do live nativities there. So you have a poor woman staying there like Mary really freezing shivering in the December to hold up an Italian mountain with the donkey and the cow and a poor man who sent Joseph and the baby normally is not a real baby they put like a a doll. A doll yeah. But so they've got these real people shivering at midnight on Christmas Eve in a living nativity. Yes they do. And are they all alone or are they appreciated are people coming out to see them? No people come to see them it's a tradition it's a moment it's everybody feels good and nice at Christmas time. Maybe the next day it's hell again but Christmas it's Christmas it's something else. So the churches are full on Christmas even if they're empty two weeks later. Well you know the size of the Duomo for Vietta it's huge it's gigantic it's packed. Really? Really yes on Christmas Eve. Yes on Christmas Eve. Okay so now you've got your midnight your midnight mass basically. Many people go home and open presents then and then people are quite tired it's been exciting a lot of family and relatives a lot of work to set up for this. Yes the next day what happens? Another meal with meat. Now you have meat. Of course because it's the next day. And what kind of meat in? We normally have lamb or turkey these are the typical and also the tampone it's a pork recipe which is to be served with lentils. It's like a very big sausage of pork meat mixed with the skin of the pork and then you have a kind of pasta then you have the vegetables the lentils then panettone, pandoro, torrone, panpepato, cantuccini. Sounds like a lot of sweets. It sounds like. Cantuccini is the sweet. Yeah easy cantuccini too yes and the ricciarelli it's the cookies you call biscotti. You dip it in your wine. Yes. And then the ricciarelli it's kind of an almond pastry. With the powdered sugar on top. Yeah with the powdered sugar on top and it's an almond pastry and they are originally from Siena but they are spread very popular all over the country. And then the fruit cake. Panpepato, panpepato is from Umbria it's a mix of chocolate hazelnuts almonds, pine nuts, pepper, sugar. So nobody is losing any weight on Christmas. I don't think so. A lot of work, a lot of food, a lot of sweets and then I understand the combination is not until January 6th. Yeah no no no till January 6th is the Befaana day and this is where all the holidays finishes. And that's the day the wise men finally brought the gifts to the baby Jesus the 12th day of Christmas. Yes yes. But if you're a child in Italy that's the day the scary witch. Yeah the scary witch but she's not scary because she gives you a nice sock and in the sock you might have different things. If you did behave you have only sweets and candies. If you didn't behave you might have some coal in it which means you didn't behave properly. And I remember doing once a little joke to my grandma. I did put her the big sock with a big big piece of coal in it and she returned it to me with 50 euro. That was very nice. Very nice. When you go to the 1030 mass on Christmas Eve which him, which Carol are you looking forward to? Which one do you enjoy singing? Well we all sing Astro del Celle. What is that? Astro del Celle Carmen di Vin. Mi teaggnello protettor. That's Silent Night in Italian version. Beautiful. Can you wish our listeners right now who are getting quite excited about the culmination of the holiday season, a Merry Christmas Italian style in your language? I'd like to say beautiful but I didn't understand all of that. I wish you a Merry Christmas, a happy New Year and I normally say New Year's. Why should I limit it to one? And I wish you to see you all in Italy soon. Say that again in Italian please. I wish you a Merry Christmas, a happy New Year and I hope to see you all soon in Italy. That's beautiful. Cecilia Bottai from Umbria, just north of Rome. Merry Christmas to you as well. Thank you. I wish you a Merry Christmas, a happy New Year and I hope to see you all soon in Italy. Our Christmas preparations take us next to France and Norway and later to Greece and Basque Country in Spain as we celebrate the season across Europe on travel with Rick Steves. We'll get a taste of Scandinavian holiday traditions from Norway in just a bit and a little later in the hour we'll hear about some truly unique holiday characters that the Basques and the Greeks welcome each year. Right now on Travel with Rick Steves let's sample the holiday customs of France where you get to eat a lot of very rich foods this time of year guilt-free. Patrick Vidal and Virginie Moret are our guides right now for Christmas in France. Bonjour. Bonjour. Actually, joyeux Noël. Joyeux Noël. All right. Your French is so good. Thank you. It's better every year. It is, isn't it? It goes from miserable to less miserable. When you think about Christmas in France, what would distinguish French Christmas from Spanish or German or Italian Christmas? I think first thing we got to think of and that's the general thing about France is like if you think about cooking or stuff like that, you got to be regional. It's different in every region of France. Oh, that's right. So there are so many distinct regions in France that you can't just say French Christmas. You can say Brittany or Burgundy or Provence or Alsace, which is much more Germanic. There are some common things that we'll have like the Bûche de Noël, which is the Eul loge, except in southern France they do the 13 different Christmas desserts. But otherwise, I would say the Bûche de Noël. What is a Bûche de Noël? So Bûche is a log, so the log of Christmas and it does look like a log. Really looks like, you know. What is in it? It's a rolled cake with chocolate and a cream. And trust me, at the end of dinner, you don't have room for this, but you do have to go through it. The whole log. So now they're making them out of ice cream because it's a bit lighter, but it's a real pastry cream that you actually use for this, but it's traditional. All over France. That would be a common denominator. Another thing as well is the fact that we celebrate mostly on Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. Oh. The big party is on Christmas Eve. Now, would that be mostly centred around a ground meal? Yes. Yeah, it's in France. So, yes. What else, Monsieur? So describe the meal on Christmas Eve. It will depend. The turkey, the oyster. You have to start with oysters. It's from France. Right. France and oysters, I would say, you have to have them from, at least oysters. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we have to be in Paris. When I'm in Paris during Christmas time, there's oysters everywhere. It seems like it's part of the season. Yeah, it's a big party thing. You know, you have chestnuts roasting on open fire. Well, not so much. We got oysters. That's the time of the year when they're the best. Okay. Well, that would make sense. You have to have bubbles. Virginia, what other memories do you have from your childhood of the grand dinner at Christmas? The grand dinner, not having room, but finishing, you know, going to the end because you have to stay at the table and eat at Christmas, so you will. But it's, yeah, oysters, foie gras, those things that kids don't like, but, you know, we have the right to have champagne at night. The kids can have champagne. You have to have a little bit of bubbles. It's like when it's your birthday, you are an adult and you can do that. So the kids have the quote, right, to have champagne at Christmas. Do you have a seat? We don't like it, but we feel like adults. Yeah, you're part of the table. And we do eat at the table with the adults. Because when I was little, we ate, you know, downstairs at the ping-pong table. But you eat at the table with the adults. And what I remember different from the U.S. is that we start dinner. When we have a big party, celebration, we don't start earlier like you guys do for Thanksgiving. We actually won't start eating until 9, 10, and then you can go to midnight mass. Do you remember being tired when you were little at the table? No, you don't want to go to bed because you're waiting for le père Noël, papa Noël, Santa Brutus. And then how does the French Santa Claus work? When does he come and who is he? I mean, it depends. It depends on the family. But in my family, Santa would, you know, you'd go to bed and then in the morning, you'd have left your, we don't have stockings like you do in the U.S. But what we do is we leave our soullier. So our nice shoes that have been shoe-shined before. Oh, you polish your shoes and you put them by the fire? By the tree. And what is the name of the Santa Claus in France? Le père Noël. Le père Noël. Le père Noël. Well, father Christmas. Father Christmas. Yes, he does. Oh, he does. He does. Okay. And you leave him, you know, a cookie and tea or something to drink? Well, is there any sort of parental trick to terrorize children into being good so père Noël will bring them presents? Hey, you've got to be on the good list of the père Noël and the opposite of the père Noël is a père fouettat. Uh-huh. Which is the guy with the whip which would come to you if you've been very bad and... And whip you. Is that right? Christmas morning. And you're stuck in a whipping. Oh, no. So either whipping or a shoe full of goodies. Yes. Yes. So you get the choices. So what kind of presents would fit in your shoe? The shoe is just an excuse. You put your shoe and there is a little tread but then you get the big presents. I think it's like any civilization, if I think of an Occidental civilization at the time, you think of my parents, the present was an orange or a mandarin because that was an exotic fruit at the time and nobody had too much money and it was the thing. As we grew up it was something a little bit bigger already but it was one present and two presents maximum. I don't remember having more than that for Christmas. Nowadays you see now the... I mean you don't see the Christmas tree anymore. I mean the presents are... The kids nowadays. There's some spoiled. In France too, huh? Oh yes, exactly. Same. Is there a notion in France that Christmas is over-commercialized? Is there a reaction against that or is it just a shopping festival? It's not as much as in the States. We don't start as early for you as soon as Thanksgiving... I mean we're counting down the shopping days. ...thankgivings over and you start. In France I think December is when they start the thing and... It's changing. ...earlier, earlier. It's changing the Christmas market in Paris at the 15th of November. Was that right? So there is this creeping thing because now people are sort of appalled that they start the Christmas advertising before Thanksgiving and a lot of people just say, at least wait until Thanksgiving. So even in Europe this is a creeping commercialization. It's a global world. We live in. Business is business. Business is business. But they usually don't put the lights. I mean Paris might be the exception but in smaller towns and villages they put the lights December 1st. The light. What are those lights? The light, you put lights everywhere. I mean not just Paris, the city of lights but everywhere in France we put lights everywhere and then every small town will spend a lot of money, their budget on buying those amazing lights that says joyeux noels. That's right. Bonnane and when you enter the village you see those. Now you're from Lyon and Lyon is famous all over France for its lighting. Exactly. All year long. It's just beautiful, beautiful flood lighting. Uplighting, changing lighting. All of the monuments. Does that include Christmas lighting? I would say we do have the celebration of lights which is in December but that's not linked to Christmas in Lyon. But every big city in France the shops are going to have the best window they can have. Even if people are not going to go shopping they're going to go window licking because that's what we do in France. Window licking. Yes. If you can't afford those amazing things behind the window you're going to stick your tongue to the window and actually we'll lick it up. How do you say that in French? Faire du lech vitrine. Lech vitrine. Lech vitrine. So it's sort of like dreaming about what's behind that window and just looking at it. I heard in Paris anyways there's actually stools put out so the little children can stand on the stool and actually get a good view of the window. In front of the Galère Lafayette and the Printer which are the two big department stores in Paris on the Boulevard Osmane. So that's the tradition for the families to take the children. That's a huge thing. The crowd in front of those windows is just unbelievable. You can't even lick. You don't have the time to lick. You're pushed by the crowd. It disappears. And they put those little stands here. You get steps on one side and the kids walk around. But the funny thing about that is that for years the Christmas windows of those department store were more or less made for kids to enjoy. It's not the case anymore. They're all big fashion things and the kids walk up the thing and look at it. It's boring. So it's been taken over and now it's going to be designer purses and shoes and things. They will still try to keep a little bit of the spirit I think but a lot of them are now completely avant-garde kind of very fancy things. Speaking of avant-garde, last time I was in Paris for Christmas I was struck by displays of Christmas trees and they were the most over-the-top designer trees. It wasn't just a normal tree but it was avant-garde trees. It's fashion. You have to have the best one, the biggest one. That is sort of a Parisian approach to a Christmas tree, isn't it? By talking about the avant-garde Christmas tree lights and things like that, I think every five years they change the lights on the Champs Elysees. Because the Champs Elysees you have to walk at Christmas. You have to walk it down. I mean, up or down. So you can go up to Triumph if you're lazy and you can walk downhill. All the way to the Place de la Convo. And the lights are just unbelievable. And for years there are those lights looking like if snow was coming down on trees it was mind-blowing. It was superb. They have activities for the kids, you know, with the family. They have the ice rink and the main one being the Hotel de Ville which is the city hall of Paris. And so you can, it's free to use. You just rent your skates and you go there. You can skate in front of the Hotel de Ville, the city hall and that's an amazing place to just be with the community. This is Travel with Rick Steves. We're celebrating Christmas in France right now with Patrick Vidal and Virginie Moren. Is there a tradition of singing Christmas carols or people going out or is it just limited to the midnight mass? Yeah, no, no, it's not a big thing. It's not a big thing. No, it's really family. I mean, for example, if you're in Paris as a tourist over Christmas and you want to go eat in a restaurant you do have to book ahead of time. It's really a family reunion. The New Year's Eve is when we go out and we party with the rest of the people outside. So Christmas is family oriented and it is the big dinner and it is Parnawell coming. If you do go to church, midnight mass is the religious highlight of it. We have nativity scenes everywhere. Yeah, and in America a lot of people go to church two times a year on Easter and on Christmas, you know. Is that pretty much the same as Christmas? In France you go for weddings, funerals and Christmas. So the churches are packed at midnight. If they do it at midnight in small villages they wouldn't have a tendance because people would still be eating at midnight. So they do it like earlier, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock. In Brittany, if you go back to your childhood, what's your fondest memory of Christmas? Waking up my brother who's three years older, the morning of Christmas and just running to the tree and seeing that the Parnawell Santa did actually drink a little bit of what I left for him and a bit of the cookie and seeing all of the presents. And no whip. And no whip. No Parnavuel. No whip. And Patrick, what is your fondest memory of Christmas from your childhood? I was playing with the boxes the presents came in. Is that right? Both of those images could happen anywhere in the world I would imagine. Of course. Yes. That's beautiful. Patrick Vidal and Virginie Moret. Merci bien and joyeux Noël. Merci, joyeux Noël. Now let's head to a land of reindeer and snow. Paul Johansson joins us from Oslo for a peak at the Christmas season traditions he enjoys in Norway. Merry Christmas Paul. Goeul. Goeul. Yes. What does that mean exactly? That's how we say Merry Christmas in Norwegian. Goeul. Was it Goedjul time? Yeah. Goeul. Goeul. What distinguishes a Norwegian Christmas from maybe a German or an English or an American Christmas? Well, first of all we celebrate Christmas on the day of 24th of December. Okay, so Christmas Eve. That's Christmas Eve. That's the big day for us. And I would say the food is what distinguishes it. Is this a time for hardworking parents to bring out all the traditional foods? It is, it is. To some's pleasures and to others' nightmares in a way. Explain. Well, Norway used to be a very poor country. A hundred years ago we were the poorest country in Europe actually. So during the long winters when people didn't have anywhere to store their food and there was no access to getting fresh food, they had to find ways to preserve food. Before refrigerators. Before refrigerators. And they developed all kind of techniques to do this. For example, gravlax, like digging down salmon. So you'd bury salmon? Yeah, they bury salmon to preserve it. To preserve them or rot them with control? The gravlax is not rotten. But there's another dish which is called fermented trout. Fermented trout. So this would be in the inland part of the area. I've never encountered that on a menu. And you eat it with lefsa. Really? Which is this potato bread. Okay. So I can see young people kind of getting nervous before Christmas. Oh, we have to eat the fermented trout or the buried salmon. The thing is that I don't really like the fermented trout, but I have to eat it anyways. It's not Christmas unless I eat this kind of thing. So that's part of the ritual. Yeah, it's part of the ritual. But you know what really is my memory about Norwegian Christmas is all of the beautiful Yulekaka, the Christmas cake, right? Yes. Can you describe a Yulekaka? Traditionally, every housewife made an assortment of Yulekake, Christmas cakes. I think it's seven different varieties that they had to make. Is that right? You couldn't celebrate Christmas without having made the seven varieties. Tables full of cakes. Full of cakes, all through Christmas. Eating, eating, eating, sleeping, and then eating again. Okay, so walk us through Christmas. First of all, actually you have a Santa Lucia day. Santa Lucia, yeah. It's a pagan tradition. December 13th. Yes, it is. It's bigger in Sweden actually, but we do it in Norway as well. But in Sweden, the adults do it. In Norway, only kids do it in school. So they dress up in white dresses and they come through the hall in the schools with lit candles and then they sing the Santa Lucia song. You know, I was in Norway once on Santa Lucia day and there was even candles in the cemeteries at the gravesites. Explain that. Well, that's how we commemorate the dead. So your loved ones who have died, they really put a candle on their grave. Yeah, and we like to do this, to visit the grave during the holidays. So that's why during, especially during Christmas, you will see the graveyards are totally lit. Just flickering with candles. Yeah. And I just love the scene of the Santa Lucia procession going through the graveyard up to the church with all the candles flickering. Yeah, it's very special. Very nice. Yeah. Okay, so that's December 13th and then Norwegians celebrate Christmas more on the 24th on Christmas Eve. They're having family dinner and Norway is probably one of the least church-going countries in Europe, but on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, what's the church situation? Well, I'll be honest and say that most people don't go to church. They don't even bother going to church on Christmas? Not really. Norway. There are more people going to church during Christmas, but no, the churches are not full. It's more of a family thing. It is a family thing, family getting together. On Christmas approaches, what are the children excited about? Of the gifts. The gifts and meeting Santa Claus or our version of Santa Claus who is the Nissa. The Nissa. Yeah, Nissa far. What is the Nissa? Nissa is a gnome, actually. A little guy with a red hat and a wooden sweater. And a big white beard. And a big white beard. A little short guy about one foot tall. And he lives out on a barn, on a farm. Oh, he does? Yeah. And when you receive your mother and father will make some porridge and you go and put the porridge into the barn. And then a couple of hours later you go out there again and then the porridge is gone. The Nissa had come to eat it. So the Nissa are there? Oh, there's evidence. Oh yeah, there's evidence. And then later in the evening they come and knock the door and everybody's exciting and the children are screaming and wow, the Nissa is coming and he comes in the door with some gifts for the children. Somebody dresses up like a Nissa and comes in? I was actually a Nissa last year. You were a Nissa? Yeah, I was. And you dressed up? I dressed up. Put on a beard? Yeah, yeah. Scared my little niece. And is there some way that parents can terrorize their children into behaving well by threatening them for no gifts from the Nissa? Yeah, that's what we say. You have to behave well. If not, Nissa will not come this year. Yeah, we say you've got to be. Are you naughty or nice? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So and then after the Nissa has visited the house we go around the Christmas tree and sing a Christmas carols. Paint that picture for us. Is it outside, inside? Oh, it's inside. It's inside in the living room. People gather literally all around the Christmas tree. Around the Christmas tree holding hands. This is something an Norwegian family would do if there are children. And singing traditional carols? Yeah, traditional carols and going around and yeah, it's great fun. What's the situation with the commercialization of Christmas? Is it a big shopping festival in Norway like it is in the United States? It is becoming like that, I would say, unfortunately. And also we see the tendency that Christmas tends to start earlier and earlier. Historically or traditionally, it did not start until the first Sunday of Advent, which is the end of November or start of December. But now we see that the Christmas decoration starts to come up in the beginning of November. Creeping forward for more shopping, more retail activity. Yeah, unfortunately. This is Travel with Rick Steves, who's been talking about Christmas in Norway with Paul Johansson from Aslo. Now let's close our little Norwegian Christmas discussion with one of your fondest, happiest memories as a little child of Christmas when you were a little boy in Oslo. Oh, well, it's just the whole day you wake up in the morning and you sit down and you watch some typical cartoons on television and then you eat a lot of Christmas cakes, of course. And it's just like the excitement rising up during the day and then you have the very good Christmas dinner. And the rotten trout. The rotten trout and the dug down salmon. And we're all at the table so excited. We see all the gifts under the Christmas tree and we can hardly sit. So at this point the Nise has already come, you know that? Well, yeah. Or there's two kinds of gifts, gifts from your relatives and gifts from Nise. Yeah, we have the same sort of thing. When do you actually open the gifts? Well, we start dinner at around five o'clock. Lots of relatives, people you haven't seen sometimes for a while. And then we open the gifts around eight or nine. And then we go to bed pretty early actually, like eleven, eleven thirty. Really? Yeah. And then Christmas Day, the twenty-fifth? Well, then we get up early and we have a Christmas breakfast. Kind of the leftovers from the day before. Paul Johansen, good Yule and Tusentag for helping us understand Norwegian Christmas. Merci, gu Yule, och gott nytt år. Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Boy, you're scorned at Christmas, but they still have lots of fun. Just the same as you, I enjoy it too. Merry Christmas, everyone. If you're looking for something different for Christmas this year, wait till you hear about the holidays in Greece and the Basque Country. That's next on Travel With Rick Steves. Right now our European holidays take us to Greece. We're joined by Anastasia Gaetano from Thessaloniki and Dane Kosuri from Athens. Anastasia, Dane, thanks for joining us. Thank you very much. Actually, I should say, I should say Merry Christmas in Greece at Dane. No, it's Kala Christoujana. And what is that? Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. But of course anticipating New Year's Eve, we would also say happy New Year. Kali hrona. Anastasia, when you consider Easter compared to the rest of the Mediterranean, really, Greece is a big deal on Easter. Is Christmas celebrated with the same vigor as Easter? Not really. I wouldn't say that. Christmas definitely is very important because it's the beginning of everything. If you look at it out of a religious point of view, because without the Nativity of Christ, you wouldn't have Easter. So you have to have the beginning. True. With no Christmas, there'd be no Easter. Exactly. But Easter is a combination of the whole thing, is the peak of the whole celebration, because that's the salvation of humankind, again, of the religious point of view. And in a Greek Orthodox style, Easter is the huge festival. It's the huge festival. On the other hand, Christmas, I think, is mainly a shopping festival. And it's also a very good chance that we have to get again together with people we know that we cannot see very often during workdays, or weekdays. So it's social, it's family time, it's gift-giving, and so on. Yes, of course it's... Whereas Easter would have more time in mass. Both. Both. Both. And Christmas is mainly more for small children as well, because of the presents, and because of those family reunions, there's a lot of food involved in that. So, Dene, when you were growing up in Athens, tell me this sort of the Christmas schedule for the family. How did the whole time unfold from a child's point of view? First of all, I was very excited, because school was over for two weeks, so I had all the time needed to enjoy as a child. And of course it was shopping before Christmas, presents for everybody. Who brings the gifts? Santa Claus brings the gift. Actually, in Greece is Saint Vassilis, who brings the gifts. Saint Vassilis. Yeah. Okay. He was a real personality, actually. Now, do you have Christmas trees? We do, certainly. And how do you decorate them? Oh, with thousands of Christmas lights, and stars, and all kinds of toys, you can imagine, small, of course, miniatures on the tree. Anastasia, I hear that there's a Christmas boat or something also? Yes. Well, Christmas tree is more a Western tradition, and we have been using it for, I don't know, about 100 years maybe, maybe less, but we did not really have it before the early 19th century. The traditional Christmas decoration is the Christmas boat, because Greeks have always been people of the sea. So where Greece is actually a peninsula, three sides we have the seas, wherever you are, you're not really far from that. So it was a boat, always decorated, either with little lights or early days candles, whatever. Can you still see that when you travel around Greece at Christmas? Well, if you can see that, yes, in many places you can, and sometimes in the municipality, in the city, like in my city, many times, there will have a big boat of lights, you know, next to the Christmas trees, and not forget about the tradition. That would be beautiful. It is, it is. Dene, when you are thinking of Christmas, what are the traditional holiday foods that you're likely to see? Is it a special menu, or is it just the same menu as other days? No, there is a very, very special menu. It's a turkey, of course, stuffed with meat inside. We also have pork, which is our favorite made in Greece. And of course, all these delights we have, like the melomacarona and the vasilopita, all these sweets. What are those? The melomacarona are small honey pies. Usually they are stuffed with nuts inside, and sugar, and walnuts, yes. And honey, and syrup, and they're amazing, yes. Lots of calories, but believe me, it's worth it. And Anastasia, what are some of the Christmas foods that you have fond memories of when you were growing up? Oh, God, that's really difficult to tell. Everything tastes so great. What always remains in memory, I think, and we have a lot of recollections of that, is that vasilopita that Dene mentioned. Vapita means pie, in this case, is a cake. And vasilis is St. Basilios, or St. Basilis, whose Arsente clause. It is said that because he really existed, he's one of the great fathers of the Orthodox Church, and he existed more or less in the same time period as St. Nicholas. But it is said that once upon a time, they were afraid that the city he lived in would be invaded, and they needed money to organize a defense, so they did not have that money. So he asked all the people to bring their jewelry. So they did that, but they didn't need it, after all, at the end. So he had to give it back to them, but the jewelry was not tagged with names, so he didn't know whom to give it back to. So he had a big cake baked, and he put all the jewelry in it, or small cakes, some say. And everybody got one of those small cakes then, by chance, nobody knew what was in it, and it is said it was a miracle, and everybody got his jewelry back. That's the reason why he's the one who brings the presents. So this Christmas cake, as we call it, has a coin in it. And we always bless it then, we cross it. There is a piece for Jesus, a piece for Mother Mary, for the house, for work, and then everybody around the table gets a piece, and whoever gets the coin has good luck, and good spirit for the whole year. Well, that must be part of the fun festivities of Christmas Eve. It's a lot of fun. Is that Christmas Eve that you do this? No, that is New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve, okay. This is Travel for Xtives. We're talking about Christmas in Greece, with Anastasia Gaithannou and Denai Koussari. Anastasia, what are some distinctive traditions we might find if we happen to be in Greece during Christmas? There are some traditions that go way back, like, for example, the Greek leprechauns, although they're not necessarily green. But they're supposed to be small and very, very ugly and stink, and they live under the earth for the whole year. But between Christmas, that's the 25th of Nativity, till the 6th of January, that's baptism, the waters of the rivers, or the waters in general, have not been baptized yet, which means they're not clean yet. So in that time period, they find the chance to come out of their whatever layer they're in. These stinky leprechauns. These stinky little leprechauns, yes. And they come out and they make a lot of noise, and they cause a lot of trouble. They're not dangerous. They will not wound you or kill you, but if they come into your house, it'll be a mess after that. So in order to keep them out, because they climb down from the chimney, you know, you have constantly they have fire on, or you can put some sweets outside your doorstep, hoping that they get the sweets and go away, go to the next house. And this is a whole season that you have to be careful about these. It's 10 days, more or less. From when till when? It's from the 25th of December till the 6th of January. Okay, epiphany. Yes, it's epiphany. So from Christmas until basically what we call the 12 days of Christmas? Exactly. And the Tree of Life then is, well, tradition says that the whole of earth is on this tree. So what they try to do is sow the Tree of Life and destroy earth. But they come out during these 12 days, and when they go back, then the Tree is whole again. So they have to start all over again, and that goes on every year and every year. Every year, the struggle every year with the stinky leprechauns. And deny, what is one other dimension of a Greek Christmas that might be unique? Well, actually it has to do with New Years Eve, and it's the Pomegranate fruit. Since the ancient time period in Greece, at least it was a sacred fruit. It has a symbolism, probably because of all these seeds that it has inside. Fertility or? Exactly, fertility, but also prosperity. So every year, 12 o'clock after midnight, when we have the change and the arrival of the New Year, we always smash a Pomegranate fruit at our doorsteps. So the red color from the fruit goes around. Yeah, it's messy. But it symbolizes good luck for New Year. Well, this is the same culture that throws plates against the wall. Oh, pretty much. And all these seeds symbolize prosperity for New Year again. Good luck. Great. Dene and Anastasia, thanks so much for giving insight into your culture's holiday festivities. Can you one more time wish us Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. It wasn't until 1975 that the people of Basque Country in northern Spain were able to restore their own special holiday traditions. That was after the end of the Franco Dictatorship that had banned all uniquely Basque symbols and traditions. Augustine Sarisa joins us now on Travel Thrick Steves for a look at how his community enjoys the holidays now in Basque Country. Augustine, welcome. Thank you. Now, how do you say Happy Christmas in Basque? We would say Sorionak, Et'Aurte Verrion, as in Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Well, Basque culture is partly in France and partly in Spain. You're from San Sebastian in Spanish Basque Country. And Basque is distinct from Spain in so many ways. You've got a language that's not even related to Spanish. How is the Basque Christmas celebration distinct from the Spanish Christmas celebration? We do have a different Santa that we call Ol' Incedo. Ol' Incedo is a figure, it's a character that was created 50 years ago, not older than that. He was a man living in the woods in the forest that he was producing coal in the mountains. He probably was not very friendly. He was alone, a single man living in the mountain. Well, he had a wife called Maria Domingue. And he would come up for Christmas to bring presents for the kids. So he was invented just 50 years ago. Why would you create a mythic character just 50 years ago? I would say to face the dictatorship. I mean, since everything was fine. This was during Franco's time. And Franco was making you be Spanish. And you did not want to raise your children with a Spanish Santa Claus. That's right. We would have a celebration, Christmas Eve, that we now call Gabongawa. And it was known as Ol' Incedo. And this is dated back to the early 16th century. They would celebrate the Christmas time. We had a different religion before Christianity arrived with the Romans to the area. So it's a kind of mix of mythology. And the celebration itself, since they would celebrate New Year's Day on April, with the New Spring time. So they started celebrating this kind of transition from that religion called Amalur Mother Earth into Catholicism. So the Basque religion before the Roman Catholics or the Christians came was Mother Earth religion. True. So all over Europe, people incorporate the pagan pre-Christian religions into the modern Christian Christmas celebration. Give a specific example in Basque country, one part of your ritual that would predate Christianity. Well, on this religion we would pray for the sun and the four elements of nature and would have all different kinds of mythological characters. Like the most popular one is called Baseljaun, as the man of the woods, the man of the forest, who would protect the nature and who would try to maintain everything on a good balance. So there was a sort of a respect for nature and almost an environmentalism worked into your Christmas celebration. Correct. Because nature brought the bounty. Yeah. All the goodness was coming from nature. Now Basque country is famous for its food. We could have sent Sebastian your town and I just want to eat all day long. We've got these, I mean, tapas are fun in Spain, but in Basque country, gourmet tapas and in San Sebastian I think the very best. How do you celebrate from a food point of view the Christmas season? We obviously have a big dinner consisting of different sharing food on the table, Ham, the traditional Spanish ham, it's so popular as well there. In my home we would have the white asparagus. White asparagus, okay. Yeah, something light as well. The foie gras coming from the southern France will be always on the table. The different ham, some shellfish like prawns, shrimps and we can afford it to have a lobster as well. And then we would have either meat or fish. Well, both of them actually. We would have kind of a transition from the starters to the sir going through fish like very much and we usually have that the hake's barbos. What is that? They will call them cocotches. So this is the hake's barbos. This is this piece of the neck of the hake fish, which is very tender and very tender. So the hake fish is a white fish? Yeah. The neck of the white fish, the hake fish. The low part? That's the tasty part. Very tasty. I think I've had that in just tapas. Probably. In gourmet tapas in a bar in San Sebastian. Probably. And there to go a piece of meat, usually tenderloin, beef meat. This is Travel Throok Steves. We're talking with Augustine Tsiritha. We're talking about celebrating Christmas time in Basque country. Augustine, you mentioned the man in the woods, the lonely, single, mysterious man in the woods that brings the children the gifts. Tell more about when you're a child in Basque country, how he brings the gifts and when you receive them. And if there's a way that the parents can kind of terrorize the children into being good children instead of bad children. So this person, the Ol'ensei-dok, comes on December 24 and brings my Christmas gift. And if I would have behaved improperly, if I would be a bad boy, I would get cold instead of any other... So your guys been communicating with our Santa Claus, they do the same thing. Yeah, very similar rituals. Do you open your presents on the Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? We do open on Christmas morning. So he comes at night? Yeah, he comes at night. Do you give him some goodie, like waiting for him to... Yeah, you leave your socks in the room, on the table or whatever. And then, yeah, you provide him some kind of snaps and some food. Some snaps? Get him in a good mood. Yeah, get him in a good mood and keep going. Energy. Now when you think about the general schedule for the Christmas Eve, Christmas day, can you just walk us through the schedule, how you will do that this Christmas? So for us, it starts a bit earlier, December 21. That's when we celebrate St. Thomas. We would celebrate St. Thomas as a big popular day. It's kind of the beginning of Christmas for everybody. Everybody returns back home for that day and meets their relatives. And that day, everybody's on the street dressed up on the local outfit and they go for eating the local sausage and have an apple cider and visit the market. Back in the old days, all the workers would get an extra pay, Christmas extra pay. So we'll have the money and we'll go to the market to buy the tools to keep working for the next year. So they would come into San Sebastian from all the neighborhoods. That would be the big marketplace. Now has become a big pre-Christmas event in which everybody's dressed up on the local outfit and having a good fun and enjoying the market. December 21. December 21. Three days later, we have a Christmas Eve and we have this parade in which everybody shows the old and children on the street and sings to the old and children to come and be good and generous with the kids. Then the following day... So this is the man that you've created, the lonely, interesting man from the woods. So you have a parade to the streets and we're all going to celebrate him and we've been good, bring us some good gifts. Okay, that's the Christmas Eve parade. That's right. And then we wake up in the morning on Christmas, we open all the kiffs and we have a big meal all together again. So we have a big dinner and then a big meal again. Start this in two mains and a big dessert and a lot of drinks. People are usually having champagne and a good wine. And when people go to church, do they go at midnight or in the morning? The classic, the most popular was what we call misa de gallo, which is translated into the hence mass and it used to be midnight. But now since no one is going out after dinner to mass to church, they have it at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. On Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve. So before the family dinner, you go to the mass. Okay, and on Christmas Day 25th, it's mostly just eating more and having more fun with friends. That's it. Playing with your toys. August and Sadisa, thank you so much for joining us. And can you one more time say in Basque Country, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Sorio na, et a urte verrillon. Alright, I'll never learn that, but I would like to be in Basque Country sometime on Christmas. Thanks again, Augustin. Thanks to you.哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎 We're Sheila Gurzoff and our theme music is by Jerry Frank. You'll find more at ricksteves.com slash radio. Wishing you warm and healthy holidays. From all of us at Travel with Rick Steves. Hi, I'm Rick Steves from Travel with Rick Steves. However you say it, Feliz Natal, Sreta Božić, Goudjival, Feliz Navidad, Kala Hristugena, Kehronya Pola, Nolog Hona, Sroniv Jenocht, Ciestita Koleda, Klajevis Drave i Nogum Nogukosmet, In Saalich i Gelukich, Oll Weihnachten, Nathalie Klaju, Boon Natale. Our wish for you is for a wonderful Christmas and a holiday season filled with peace and joy.